Page:Two Mock Epics (Hanuman and Tantum Religio), Lyrics, Post Meridian Verse, The Turret Captain's Toast and other Verses.pdf/43

 Here Sèvres, here real Japan, your notice claims;

A modern stove, in which dance tinsel flames;

A gallery of portraits, frames and all,

Painted with taste direct upon the wall:

And in the midst, in full imperial state,

King Hanuman upon a throne reposes

In the bright raiment luckless Lear of late

Raved in; the crown half o’er his ears and nose is—

Being somewhat large; but what of that? his right hand

Grasps the gold lily-sceptre, type of might and

Justice; and on his lap th’ imperial ball is

With which his left hand languidly just dallies.

A rostrum bears the statutes of the realm,—

They’re scores and actors’ parts—as actors spell ’em,

Old love letters, musk-scented, and cream-laid ones;

And tailors’ bills—in general, unpaid ones.

And would the prince to rooms yet more resplendent,

He just signs with his sceptre to the attendant—

No more—and says: “Ho! throne room!” for example.

Lo! swarms of servants clutch at every angle,

Detach the walls, return with walls more ample,

Wheel, fit them: high and low the hammers jangle,

And presto! as by wizard’s wand enchanted,

The wished-for hall around the king is planted.

Thus, without need to stir a foot, he changes

Hall after hall, and which of all the range is

The loveliest, who can say? as though one dallies

In fairy-land within a spell-bound palace.

And passing rich his robes, to fit his station,

He’s always at it, stripping and unstripping:

His pearl-sewn chasuble, pre-Reformation,

Succumbs to Louis Quinze, and now he’s slipping